This recipe will make a more tender, soft cookie with a moist middle. I've used this basic recipe to make many other flavors and types of cookies.

Cornstarch gives the cookie a tender crumb. Brown sugar provides the softer middle. Powdered whole milk (such as Nido in the yellow can), helps the cookies to be tender.

Ingredients:

2 cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp double acting Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Kosher or Sea Salt

1 stick soft Dairy Butter

1/2 cup Cane Sugar

1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar

3 tablespoons Cornstarch

1/4 cup Whole Milk Powder

1 beaten Egg

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Set oven to 325°f. Blend sugars and soft butter until creamy, (2 to 3 minutes with a mixer).

Mix flour, cornstarch, dry milk, baking powder and salt together. Sifting them together isn't necessary but you could do that of course.

Then put all the ingredients together in a bowl and blend with your hands. I like to know by feel how well mixed the dough is. For me, that is best done by touch. Don't overmix, only until it combines. Allow to chill covered in the fridge for about 2 hours. This allows the dry ingredients to absorb moisture.

Roll into little balls of dough, (about 3 tablespoons or less each ball). Set aside, keep forming balls of cookie dough until all the dough is used up.

Gently hand shape the balls into small hockey puck shapes, about 1/2 inch tall.

Very lightly press both sides of each shaped cookie in cane sugar, then place on a cookie sheet. Mine don't spread very much, so they can be about 1 1/2 inches apart.

The sugar granules on the bottoms of the unbaked cookies prevent sticking to the pan. I never need oil spray, parchment paper, or anything else to prevent sticking. They never have stuck to the pan for me.

Depending upon your oven and altitude, bake these for 8 to 12 minutes. Turn the pan around halfway through so they bake evenly on both sides of the cookie sheet.

Watch them, they can brown too quickly. When they're done, they will feel slightly undercooked in the centers.

Remove from oven and allow to cool about 10 minutes on the cookie sheet, which allows the cookies to finish cooking. Then using a spatula, place them to finish cooling on a wire rack.

I've stored mine in a zip storage bag for about two weeks without any problems. They will become slightly less moist and soft in the middles by the end of the two weeks. They're softest when they're freshly baked and cooled.

This is the same recipe I use to make my soft pecan sandies. For that recipe, I add 1 1/2 to 2 cups freshly ground pecans added to the above recipe to make those.

Notes:

Using shortening in place of butter allows the cookie to spread more while baking, and is less hard, as opposed to butter.

Butter will make for a little harder cookie, but flavor is it's best gift to a cookie.

The best fat option I've found for both flavor and how the cookies bake and brown, is lard. It has next to no flavor on it's own, but brings out the crispness and flavors of the dough ingredients very nicely. Lard leaves no odd aftertaste in the baked cookies as shortening can.

Consider using a teaspoon or more of real (from a maple tree) maple syrup in place of some of the sugar. Or use maple sugar if you can find it. The dry maple sugar won't make the cookie dough too wet. With maple syrup you will need to add a teaspoon or two of dry ingredients, such as flour, to prevent the dough being too wet.